Ross, Rachel, Helen, and Arthur

The Division for Planetary Sciences meeting was in Puerto Rico this year, and so we took advantage of the location to spend some time with Rachel's Dad at his farm in the nearby rain forest. Rachel's brother, Gus, came with us to help out with the kids while we were at the meeting.

Helen and Arthur had a great time on the farm, and really enjoyed the animals. Helen helped her Abuela with the chickens on a daily basis, helped her Abuelo with the goats, shouted at the dogs. She also enjoyed swimming in their pool and watching nearly as much TV as she wanted. She wasn't as enamored of the food this time around, but she's 4, what are you going to do?

Unfortunately, Arthur's body chose that week to bring his 4 canine teeth through his gums, and so he kind of had two modes: happy-go-lucky-normal and screaming in pain and frustration--mostly for his mother. Of course it was only in the fullness of time that we finally clued into the teeth situation. One morning after being awake most of the night with the angry screaming, we actually packed up and headed out to the local hospital. We had no idea what was causing it--and neither did the folks at the hospital. He wasn't running a fever, his eardrums weren't swollen. Sadly, I think they got a little H1N1-concerned, and the first physician ordered chest x-rays and blood draws (which didn't go well). Finally, after being at the hospital for 3 or 4 hours, a pediatric physician with a little more english showed up, examined Arthur (who by this time had settled down and was almost happy again), and declared him fine. We were given a prescription for cough medicine (he was kinda stuffed up). So there were good spots and rough spots that week. Our master plan of leaving the kids with Gus while we actually attended all of the meeting that we wanted didn't go exactly as we planned. We still managed to get to things, just not as much as we would have liked.

Rachel's dad also hosted a party at his farm on Friday night, which was a great success. We got almost 30 of our friends up there, Gustavo roasted a pig, and Magda and her friends made lots of excellent food.